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CBS has found its Spock. Following in the footsteps of Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto, actor Ethan Peck will play a young version of the famous Vulcan in season two of Star Trek: Discovery.

Peck is the grandson of famed actor of the silver screen Gregory Peck, who was best known for films like Roman Holiday, The Yearling, and Moby Dick, among others. Ethan Peck has appeared in numerous TV shows like Gossip Girl, That 70's Show, and Madam Secretary. He starred in the TV series 10 Things I Hate About You in the role played by Heath Ledger in the film on which it was based, and he has also appeared in several movies and the video game Halo 4. Several pictures of Peck can be found on his Instagram page.

Discovery showrunner Alex Kurtzman revealed that Spock would appear in the show's second season during a panel at the 2018 San Diego Comic-Con.

As Discovery takes place several years before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series or even the alternate-universe storylines that began in the 2009 J.J. Abrams movie reboot, the Spock in Discovery will be much younger than versions Star Trek fans have watched in the past. That said, Peck is 32 years old, making him only slightly younger than Leonard Nimoy was when he first played the character.

Kurtzman released the following statement with the casting news:

Through 52 years of television and film, a parallel universe and a mirror universe, Mr. Spock remains the only member of the original bridge crew to span every era of Star Trek. The great Leonard Nimoy, then the brilliant Zachary Quinto, brought incomparable humanity to a character forever torn between logic and emotion.

We searched for months for an actor who would, like them, bring his own interpretation to the role. An actor who would, like them, effortlessly embody Spock’s greatest qualities, beyond obvious logic: empathy, intuition, compassion, confusion, and yearning.

Ethan Peck walked into the room inhabiting all of these qualities, aware of his daunting responsibility to Leonard, Zack, and the fans, and ready to confront the challenge in the service of protecting and expanding on Spock’s legacy. In that spirit, we’re thrilled to welcome him to the family.

Further Reading

Star Trek: Discovery will return exclusively to streaming services CBS All Access in January. CBS has also announced plans to bring back Star Trek: The Next Generation's Captain Jean-Luc Picard in his own series, played by his original actor, Sir Patrick Stewart.

We'll avoid Discovery season one spoilers here, but viewers who have followed the show to this point knew Spock was likely coming, as he has strong, direct ties to multiple central characters in the series, and events in the first season's finale implied this was coming. Further, hints about Spock appeared in the first full trailer for Discovery's second season, included below.

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Samuel Axon
Based in Los Angeles, Samuel is the Senior Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he covers Apple products, display technology, internal PC hardware, and more. He is a reformed media executive who has been writing about technology for 10 years at Ars Technica, Engadget, Mashable, PC World, and many others. Emailsamuel.axon@arstechnica.com//Twitter@SamuelAxon